Getting Away With You

Finally Matt turned on the shower and Jimmy got out, soaked to the bone, and pissed off about it. After a few minutes of listening to him go on about how tired he is and how his head hurts, and about how now he soaking wet and cold too, I began to wonder about Jimmy’s mental state. He eventually went back to his and Brian’s room, not exactly being able to tell us why he was in the shower, why Brian was in my bed, or why there were various empty, half empty and almost empty bottles scattered about the room. Not two second after Jimmy left, Brian came in.

“What crawled up his ass and died?” Brian asked as he sat down at the round table next to me.

“We don’t know. You two must’ve had some kind of party last night.” Matt said, and Brian nodded.

“Apparently so, there were about five girls in our room and I had no clue who they were, why they were there, or why none of them had clothes on, but I kicked them out. I asked one what happened, and she just laughed and said there was a lot of booze, a lot of sex, and a lot of chaos. Though, I didn’t wake up ass naked, so I’m guessing I got up sometime, got dressed the best I could while completely shit faced, and then made my way over here. As for Jimmy, I have no clue.” Brian said, and then I looked over at him skeptically.

“How did you get in without a key card?” I asked and he paused, and Matt looked at him too.

“I’m not sure…” He trailed off, then began rambling about what could have happened, and how he could have gotten a card, or gotten in. Matt and I just sat there and nodded when it seemed appropriate, and spoke whenever he said anything to us directly. He went on for a good hour with the ‘what if’s until Matt finally spoke up, ending his rant on what could have happened.

“Well, we need to get out of here and get down to Freak’s place as soon as possible, it’s nearly two.” Matt said and I looked over at him.

“Freak?” I asked and Brian nodded.

“He’s an old friend from high school. You’ll understand why we call him Freak once we get there.” Brian said, and I slowly nodded.

“So we’re staying with him?” I asked and Matt nodded.

“He has this big house that he never stays at, it’s fully furnished, and pretty much vacant. His parents are rich, and they let him do whatever he wants. He’s a drug addict, was a chain smoker, is a raging alcoholic, and a very successful businessman. How he maintains a high paying job while still being street trash with a name like Freak, nobody will ever know.” Matt said, and the door opened and Jimmy came in, smiling and cheery as ever.

“Morning guys.” He said, with a smile and sat down next to Brian, and across from Matt.

“What the fuck? This morning you were grumpy as hell and suddenly you’re all giddy and happy?” I asked, and he shrugged.

“I found a really hot chick in the bathroom and she-” Matt cut him off.

“Okay, we don’t need to hear about that.” He said and Jimmy pouted.

“You don’t want to hear about my adventures in the bathroom with the hot girl?” He asked and Matt and I shook our heads.

“I think I can live without hearing that.” I said and Matt nodded.

“I agree.”

“I want to hear about it.” Brian said, and Matt slapped the back of his head. “Fuck!” He exclaimed, rubbing his head, and Matt pursed his lips and shook his head.

“No you don’t.” Matt said sternly.

“Shouldn’t we get going to Freak’s place?” Jimmy asked, and Matt stood up. Brian and I followed his actions.

“Alright, let’s get our stuff together, and we’ll meet up in the lobby.” Matt said, and Brian and Jimmy nodded.

“Okay, but, I came over here to ask you two something.” Jimmy said, and we both looked over at him.

“What?” I asked and he looked at us with an expression of slight worry.

“Have you guys seen my wallet? I had five thousand in there and the valet ticket was in there too.” Everyone immediately froze.

“You just carry around five thousand dollars in your wallet, and don’t tell us about it?” Brian asked and he nodded.

“On this trip I did because we may need it.”

“Jimmy, did it every hit you that if you lose your wallet we’re all screwed for cash, and if you put the valet ticket in there we wouldn’t get our car back?” Jimmy shook his head and Matt sighed. “Great, well, I have maybe a couple hundred but maybe Brian has enough to-”

“I blew all my money on slots last night.” Brian cut Matt off.

“Wait, all of your money?” I asked and he nodded. “How much is all of your money?”

“About nine hundred dollars.” He said, shrinking back slightly away from us, and Matt ran a hand down his face.

“You two are like fucking children.” He said, and looked around. “Danielle and I will search this room, Jimmy, you search your room, and Brian, go find those girls you said you kicked out of your room and put them all through an interrogation. You need to find out what happened last night, and how many of them there were to start out with, and if any of them took Jimmy’s wallet.” Matt said, and Brian and Jimmy darted off.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone much like those two.” I said and Matt let a chuckle past his lips.

“I swear, sometimes I’ve considered leaving them in the middle of a desert somewhere.” He said and I nodded as we began searching.

“That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.”

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
“Brian, there you are! We searched both rooms and didn’t find it, did you have any luck?” Jimmy asked as he walked over to Brian as he walked towards us. We had searched both rooms, and did not find Jimmy’s wallet, so we had met up in the lobby, and had been waiting for Brian for the past two hours. Brian didn’t exactly look like himself, he looked like he had actually taken a shower, and he had some kind of glazed look on his face.

“Y-yea.” Brian said and he took Jimmy’s wallet out of his back pocket and handed it to him. Jimmy smiled and opened it up just to let the smile drop.

“Dude, I’m a thousand short, what the fuck?” Jimmy asked and Matt and I walked over as Brian shook his head.

“I had to sell my body to get that much back, trust me, you’re lucky I didn’t just let them keep it.” Matt and I looked at him skeptically.

“What do you mean you ‘sold your body’?” Matt asked, and you could hear it in his voice that in a way he didn’t want to hear the answer.

“I mean I just had sex for an hour with a girl that I don’t even like just so I could get that fucking wallet back with four thousand dollars in it.” Brian snapped.

“You okay man?” Jimmy asked resting a hand on his shoulder and he nodded.

“I’m fine just, you know, feeling like trash.” Brian sighed. “Can we go now?” He asked and I felt bad for him.

“We don’t think you’re trash.” Matt said and I nodded.

“You’re not trash.” I said, and reluctantly hugged Brian. “You’re crazy as hell, but not trash.” I said, and I felt him wrap his arms around me.

“At least someone appreciates my sacrifice.” He said, obviously directing his sentence at Jimmy.

“Wait, you have had a shower, right?” I asked, pulling away from him slightly and he nodded.

“Just got out not five minutes ago.” He said, and I nodded.

“Great, I have my wallet back, and we’ve come to the conclusion that Brian’s a man whore, we ready to go?” Jimmy asked, and I let go of Brian as he glared at Jimmy. “Okay, let me rephrase that, so we’ve come to the conclusion that Brian’s not a man whore or trash, so now are we ready to go?”

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
We check out of the hotel, got in Jimmy’s car, and headed off towards some far corner of town where the Freak guy lived. We soon pulled onto a dirt road, where Jimmy drove slower than fuck, claiming he didn’t want to get his car dusty.

“This is where he lives?” I asked as we came across a large house in the middle of literally nowhere. Jimmy pulled into the driveway.

“Yep, this is it.” Matt said from beside me, staring up at the large house.

“You’re gonna love this guy.” Jimmy grinned at me from the front seat.

“For some reason I doubt that.” I said, and Matt opened the door and got out, and I followed him as Brian and Jimmy got out as well. We walked up to the front door, and Brian raised his hand to knock, but Matt stopped him.

“Wait, stop, you remember last time when he nearly blew our heads off, thinking we were someone else?” Matt asked, and Brian nodded, and I was suddenly weary of this man.

“Right, do your thing.” He said, and stepped back beside me. Matt jumped off of the side of the porch, and knocked twice, paused for four seconds, then took a huge step down towards the driveway and knocked twice again, really hard on the siding of the house.

“COME ON IN GUYS!” I heard some guy yell from inside and Matt smiled.

“Nice going.” Jimmy said, high fiving Matt as he jumped back onto the porch. Jimmy and Brian opened the door, and I hesitated, and Matt noticed.

“It’s okay Danielle, he’s not going to hurt you.” Matt said, giving me a warm smile, and grabbed my hand, and I walked behind him into the big house.

“Uh, Freak, where are you?” Brian called.

“I’m up here!” A man called, and we looked up at a guy standing on the banister of the second floor. “Be down in a second!” He called, and I went wide eyed as he jumped and fell nearly twenty feet to the ground, somehow miraculously landing on his feet.

“Dude you’re going to get killed one day.” Brain said, and he stood up with a grin.

“We all gotta die sometime, right? Might as well go out on your own terms!” He grinned and then looked to Matt, and let his eyes linger down to me. “Well hello there, I don’t believe we’ve met.” He pushed Jimmy aside, and stepped up to me. “I’m Fred, but you can call me Freak.” He grinned and held his hand out for me to shake, which I did cautiously after I let go of Matt’s hand.

“I-I’m Danielle. You can call me Danni, if you want.” I said, and he nodded.

“Nice meeting you, Matt didn’t exactly mention he was bringing you along, but, I guess you can always let Jimmy sleep on the couch. Unless…” He trailed off, looking at Matt, then back at me.

“Unless what?” Matt asked and Freak grinned, wiggling his eyebrows.

“You two are…” He interwound his fingers together and Matt and I nearly broke out into laughter.

“You’re funny.” Matt said, and I nodded. I had nothing against Matt, but for now we were just friends. It wasn’t like I hadn’t thought of us maybe being something more, but that would never happen. He was a great friend, end of discussion.

“You guys aren’t together?” He asked and we both shook our heads.

“No, we’re friends.” I said, and when I looked up at Matt I could have sworn I saw something flash across his face.

“That sucks. You two would look cute together.” Freak said, and pinched Matt’s cheek, and Matt was quick to swat his hand away.

“Wouldn’t they?” Jimmy asked, and ruffled my hair, and I swatted his hand away, fixing my hair.

“But they’ll have time to become a couple while we’re here.” Brian smiled at us.

“How long are you guys going to be staying?” Freak asked.

“A while.” Brian said and he nodded.

“Well, the house is all yours for as long as you guys need it to be. I just cleaned up a bit from a party last weekend, so everything should be in order. Fridge is stocked full of food and beer. I’m just right down the road, you guys have my number, so if you need anything, money, bleach, battery acid, ways to dissolve a body and leave no evidence of a murder, duct tape, kerosene, rope, bail money, good time, or a shoulder to cry on, you know how to get in touch with me. Don’t be afraid, you guys are like family, and so are you, Danni. As long as you’re with Matt or Brian or…well, Jimmy doesn’t count, but you’re family now either way. But if you hurt any of these guys I’m afraid I’m going to have to kill you.” I just stared at him, and he grinned at me. “Don’t worry babe, you haven’t gotten there yet.” He patted my cheek, and then tossed Jimmy the keys to the house and squeezed by Brian and I before jogging out of the house.

“Matt?” I looked over at him.

“What?”

“Please don’t let that man back in this house.”